Hatch Plug Ale

True story: I decided yesterday that I would just bang out these historic reviews of Cavalry beers; a sort of ode to the now closed (May 2014) brewery. I went through my archives and notes and found that I had had every one of them except the Article 15 Brown Ale.

So I did what any rational person would do and went to the one local store I knew that carried Cavalry on the regular. And fortunately for me, Parkview Wine and Spirits in West Hartford is sort of infamous for selling super old beers. Perhaps they’d have some Article 15 lying around?

Unfortunately they did not, but they did have Hatch Plug Ale in the singles fridge. I passed it over because I knew I had a picture of it already and a few tasting notes. But as you can see, it is not my usual picture.

And my OCD hates that – but not enough, I’m happy to report, to go back across town to buy another old bottle of this beer. You see? I only have to write about the issue rather than actually do anything about it.

And you people think I have a problem. Posh.

Cavalry Says:

A classic English ale made with pale malt, crystal malt, Fuggles and East Kent Goldings hops providing fruity aromas to work with the subtle malt flavors.

A happy tanker is a fat tanker and a real fat tanker is a Hatch Plug. This beer is named after a 1st Lieutenant that was traded for six M-16’s to another unit prior to departing for Iraq in early 2003. Hatch Plug went on to run the Baghdad airport and helped establish the telecommunications system in the region. Despite what we did to him he remains a good friend to this day.

I’m 41 and I’ve been reading about hops for years and I still think “Fuggles” is sort of funny. (It’s also sort of funny that every single English ale made in the US notes that they include Fuggles. It’s like a rule or something. Or, maybe England only grows three hop variants.)

Hatch Plug Ale existed because Cavalry had their golden ale and the Marauder IPA, so this was to be the in-between one. That makes sense.

The problem with that hypothesis is that the golden ale was abysmal and the IPA was nearly as bad. But somehow, in between those messes, the Hatch Plug held its own. It wasn’t too bad.

Sure, it was over carbonated like all lighter Cavalry beers and yeah, it didn’t exactly inspire me to buy any more it, but it wasn’t bad.

I just Googled “Hatch Plug” figuring I could write something about that, but it’s not, apparently, a thing. I don’t understand Cavalry’s explanation of it, as I have no idea was a “fat tanker” is, especially since the label went on to make it sound like it’s a guy. So I was going to go the butt plug route instead and while very most definitely exist, I’m not sure what I can say about them.

Oh who cares. You probably never drank this and you certainly won’t ever again.